Certificate of Recognition from NASA/ASEE for research contributions made through the 1991 Summer Faculty Fellowship Program.

Certificate of Recognition from NASA/ASEE for research contributions made through the 1990 Summer Faculty Fellowship Program.

Research Interests

Primary research in my Sediment Geochronology and Seabed Processes group centers on sediment dispersal and the accumulation of fine-grained sediments in continental margin environments. We study the environmental record preserved in marine sedimentary sequences to provide insight into continental margin evolution, human and natural changes, paleoclimate, and paleoseismicity. The formation of marine sedimentary strata rarely results from the simple settling of sedimentary material to the sea floor, but rather from the complex interaction of physical, chemical, and biological processes operating in the marine environment. These processes, such as resuspension and biological mixing, impart characteristic signatures to the sediment and control the burial and preservation of important sedimentary components such as organic carbon and anthropogenic materials. We are investigating the characteristics of recent sedimentary strata on spatial scales ranging from less than a mm to 100's of meters and on temporal scales from seconds to 1,000's of years in a variety of continental margin environments. Our studies are conducted in environmental settings around the world from the Chesapeake Bay, to tectonically active margins such as the North Island of New Zealand and Prince William Sound, Alaska, to sensitive river deltas such as the Amazon in Brazil, Ganges Brahmaputra in Bangladesh, and Ayeyarwady in Myanmar.

Current Projects

"Fate of Irrwaddy and Salween River Sediment: Relative Importance of Oceanographic and Tectonic Controls." Funded by NSF.

"Sediment and Dispersal from the Copper River, Alaska, Following Record Snowfall: Implications for Future Climate Change?" Funded by NSF

Lila Rose (Ph.D.) "Poverty Shelf, New Zealand from the Holocene to Present: Straigraphic Development and Event Layer Presentation in Response to Sediment Supply, Tectonics and Climate," College of William and Mary, 274 pp; 6/08 - 6/12; NSF Research Assistantship; GK-12 Fellowship.

Morgan Gelinas (W&M Senior Thesis). "Benthic Regeneration as a Source of Nutrients in the York River." 1/08 - 6/09.

Cielomar Rodriguez (M.S.) "Spatial and Temporal Patterns in Erosional and Depositional Processes: Physical and Biological Controls in the York River, Chesapeake Bay, Virginia," College of William and Mary, 118 pp.; Hall Bonner Fellowship; NSF Research Assitantship

Tara Kniskern (M.S.) 8/98-8/01; VIMS Research Assistantship, ONR Research Assistantship and Teaching Assistantship "Spatial and temporal variability of physical and biological mixing in the York River subestuary", College of William and Mary, 113 pp.

David Heroy (M.S.) 8/97-5/00; VIMS Research and Teaching Assistantships, NSF Research Assistantship "Sand- and Clay-Size Mineralogy of the Ganges Brahmaputra Rivers: Records of River Switching and Late-Quaternary Climate Change", College of William and Mary, 65 pp.

Steven Goodbred (Ph.D.) 8/94-5/99; VIMS Fellowship, NSF Research Assistantship "Sediment Dispersal and Sequence Development Along a Tectonically Active Margin: Late Quaternary Evolution of the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta", College of William and Mary, 165 pp.

Timothy Dellapenna (Ph.D.) 9/94-8/99; ONR Research Assistantship and Teaching Assistantship "Fine-Scale Strata Formation in Biologically and Physically Dominated Estuarine Systems within the Lower Chesapeake and York River Subestuary", College of William and Mary, 273 pp.

Beth Levy (M.A.) 08/93-7/95; NSF Research Assistantship "High-Resolution Seismic Stratigraphy of the Ganges-Brahmaputra River System: Subaqueous Deltaic Progradation on the Bengal Shelf", College of William and Mary, 104 pp.

David Dukat (M.S.) 8/91-6/93; Teaching Assistantship and NSF Research Assistantship, 8/91-6/93 "Investigation of Non-Steady-State 210Pb Flux and the Use of 228Ra/226Ra as a Geochronological Tool on the Amazon Continental Shelf", University of South Carolina, 121 pp.

Ty Fuglseth (M.S.) 8/88-6/91; Teaching Assistantship and NSF Research Assistantship, 8/88-6/91 "Organic Carbon Preservation in Deep Sea Environments: A Comparison Between the Sulu and South China Seas", University of South Carolina,115 pp.

Ellen Underkoffler (M.S.) 8/88-6/90; Teaching Assistantship and NSF Research Assistantship, 8/88-6/90 "Non Steady State Sedimentation on the Amazon Continental Shelf", University of South Carolina, 80 pp.

Tina Hariu (M.S.) 8/86-12/88; Teaching Assistantship, 8/86-12/88 "The Nature of Continental Shelf Sedimentation Seaward of the Ganges River System", University of South Carolina, 60 pp.

Marc Sanford (M.S.) 8/86-6/88; Teaching Assistantship and NSF Research Assistantship, 8/88-6/90 "Modern Sedimentary Processes in the Wilmington Canyon Area, U.S. East Coast", University of South Carolina, 126 pp.